California: A Unified State Contemplates Separation

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With over 40 million residents, California is the most populous state in the nation. It is home to Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Napa Valley and ancient Redwood and Sequoia forests. California is also one of the country’s wealthiest, social, political, influential and diverse states.

Over the years, California as a whole has been considered a liberal state due to its west coast Democrats and their strong opinions on how our country should be run, often leaving Republicans “out of the mix”.

A big part of California is actually made up of Republicans, but since they live on the east side of the state, in more rural areas, they usually go unnoticed. Urban coastal sides are more familiar and therefore noticed more for their political views. This has gotten to the Californian Republicans and they finally decided to attempt something drastic: making an entirely new state.

According to USA Today, “The founders of ‘New California’ took an early step toward statehood with the reading of their own Declaration of Independence from California, a state they describe as ‘ungovernable.’” Founders of New California released their independence from the urban coastal areas on Monday, January 15th.

Founders of New California feel that the urban coastal areas of the state have different problems, and yet, are governed the same way. They want freedom from the tyranny of the coast and away from the high taxes and strong political views. They wish to separate themselves from the coast starting from Sacramento and ending at the edge of Los Angeles with the remainder making up a whole new state named New California.

Noah Ryan, a senior at Da Vinci Communications High School (DVC) stated, “Los Angeles is so rich, we have Hollywood and we produce a lot of money.” Because of LA’s popularity, Los Angeles is increasingly becoming solely accessible to the rich. “If they start a new state I think that will be worse for the economy.”

According to CBS News,the group that wants to start New California is “organized with committees and a council of county representatives, but say it will take 10 to 18 months before they are ready to fully engage with the state legislature.”

California has been talking about splitting apart for years, but as many can see California is still one state and hasn’t gotten much closer to splitting in two.

Robert Allen, the 12th grade Government and Economics teacher at DVC, said, “I don’t see a reason to split California. You cannot split away from a nation every time you don’t agree with the opinions of the majority.”

If this were to ever happen it would create controversy and might even cause more damage than what the Republicans are saying is already present.

“It’s kinda pointless and a waste of time and money. California is just such a liberal state wherever you are, there are a few communities that are mainly Republican, but that won’t change the fact that from Los Angeles all the way to San Francisco is pretty liberal. If you don’t like the state just move,” Ryan added.

With this, whatever happens, California will remain a strong community despite its political differences.

A very interesting development. You would think that an action so drastic could only happen in the 1800’s, but the truth is the same issues still exist today. It really makes you take stock of how divide we can sometimes be.